There’s been plenty of discussion about the causes and impacts of the mortgage debacle, but two new podcasts capture aspects of the crisis in ways I hadn’t heard before.

The first is “The Giant Pool of Money,” the May 9, 2008 edition of the Public Radio International program This American Life. Rather than dissecting the crisis in econo-speak, the program goes straight to the people who played the most important roles in the crisis — the bankers, the analysts, the mortgage brokers and, yes, the homebuyers themselves — and asks them to tell their stories. Those stories are enlightening, angering, heart-breaking and, in true This American Life form, fascinating. Check it out.

The next is a Morning Edition interview with fanancier George Soros, who calls the mortgage mess “the worst, most serious crisis of our lifetime.” Soros also takes issue with the notion that the markets will eventually correct the mistakes made by humans. “Markets are also human and they are also bound to make mistakes,” says Soros. “Instead of markets always being right, they’re actually always groping at trying to find out what the facts are. But they never get it right.”

I’m not sure I agree with everything Soros says, but it’s an interesting interview nonetheless. Give it a listen here, then tell us: Just how bad do you think this crisis is?